Transcript of Soundbite by Mr K Shanmugam, Coordinating Minister for National Security and Minister for Home Affairs, at Exercise Highcrest

1. Today we had an exercise in our waters. I’m here with Minister Chan [Chun Sing], Minister [of] Defence, and MOS Desmond Choo.

2. When you come out into the waters, you see thousands of ships. Our waterways, sealines, are critical to our prosperity. One of the ways in which we can be attacked, is through attack on ships and our waterways, or an attack from the sea onto Singapore itself.

3. And Maritime trade is about 7% of our GDP. The environment is congested, it’s challenging. If you look at the number of ships that call into our ports – more than a thousand ships - calling, transiting, many more transiting.

4. So the exercise was based on a ship which is potentially posing a danger, and the Singapore Maritime Crisis Centre (SMCC) takes charge of it. Essentially, all our agencies, fronted by the SAF, in this case, the Navy, with their assets, supported by SCDF and the Police Coast Guard, dealing with the situation where a ship is posing a serious threat to our waterway and Singapore itself.

5. How did we identify, how did we provide early warning, how did we take it out – it is critical for us, and the exercise was well conducted.